People across the country eyed Coloradans’ decisions in 2019, moving the state’s local politics to the national level.
Here are the top stories of 2019, as judged by The Denver Post’s politics team and readers of The Spot, our politics newsletter.
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1. Two in, one out
Colorado’s former governor and beer entrepreneur announced that he was running for the Democratic nomination for president in a crowded 2020 field. Polling showed he would do better as a U.S. Senate candidate for Colorado, and he faced pressure from national Democrats eager to see Republican incumbent Cory Gardner unseated. After months of saying he didn’t want to be a senator, John Hickenlooper dropped out of the presidential race in August and joined the numerous Democratic candidates running for Senate.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, meanwhile, announced his presidential bid in May after prostate surgery — temporarily making the state the only one with two candidates in the primary. Despite low poll numbers and not qualifying for the last several primary debates, Bennet is still moving forward.
2. A challenge to how we elect presidents
Democrats — after winning both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office in late 2018 — voted to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement among participating states to give all their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the overall popular vote. Two-hundred and seventy votes are needed to elect a president, and the compact can’t go into effect until that threshold is met. The movement has picked up steam since the 2016 election, when Donald Trump won the most electoral votes despite losing the popular vote.
Colorado conservatives, however, pushed back, collecting a record number of petition signatures to ask voters to overturn the law in 2020.
3. Psychedelic mushrooms a go
Coloradans, and particularly Denverites, are big fans of being first. The city’s voters narrowly passed a groundbreaking measure in May to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms. The drug is still illegal to possess, but Denver police must make enforcement of that law its lowest priority, and entrepreneurs are taking advantage of the gray areas.
The vote comes after Colorado was one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana — a move an increasing number of states have followed.
4. Grasping at straws or energizing the base?
Summer 2019 was the season for failed recall attempts against Colorado Democrats, with the last — against state Senate President Leroy Garcia — ending dramatically. Organizers made it seem like they had boxes full of signatures to turn in to the Secretary of State’s Office. They turned in four. Signatures, not boxes.
Andy Cross, The Denver Post
Dave DeCenzo, left, and Joseph Santoro deliver, mostly empty cardboard Budweiser boxes with signed petitions in them to recall Colorado Senate President Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo at the Colorado Secretary of State offices Oct. 18, 2019. The Secretary of State later announced that the pair only had four signed petitions and called the effort a failure.
Many Republicans latched on to the efforts to remove five Democratic lawmakers and the governor, hoping to re-energize a dejected base and prove Colorado hasn’t turned blue. But five of the recall campaigns failed to gather enough signatures and the one against Rep. Rochelle Galindo ended after the legislator resigned over an unrelated sexual misconduct investigation.
5. Split decisions in city elections
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock won his third election for the seat in June after challenger Jamie Giellis forced him to a runoff. His win came despite discontent about the city’s rapid development and the mayor’s earlier sexual harassment scandal. Some of Hancock’s City Council allies didn’t fare as well, leaving him with a less cooperative council for his final term.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, left, responds to a question as mayoral challenger Jamie Giellis, right, listens as they take part in a debate sponsored by The Denver Post at the Denver Press Club on May 28, 2019 in Denver.
City Council elections in Aurora — the state’s third-largest city — brought similar results. Mike Coffman, a former Republican congressman, was narrowly elected mayor over local NAACP chapter president Omar Montgomery in a victory so close that the campaigns were out curing ballots for a week after Election Day. On council, however, incumbents lost seats to more progressive candidates.
6. The gun debate and Second Amendment sanctuaries
Colorado has a libertarian streak, but it has also been the site of several high-profile mass shootings, making the gun debate particularly personal here.
Gov. Jared Polis signed a red-flag bill into law this year, giving Colorado judges the power to temporarily confiscate firearms from people who could be at risk for harming themselves or others. It was the first gun legislation passed since 2013, when Democratic lawmakers were successfully recalled over the issue. Senate President Leroy Garcia was the only Democrat to vote against this year’s bill, saying he didn’t believe it was the right legislation for southern Colorado, which he represents.
The red flag bill led to staunch opposition from sheriffs in a number of counties, including Weld, Fremont, Montezuma, Otero and Custer. Commissioners passed resolutions saying their sheriffs don’t have to enforce the red flag law and declaring their counties “Second Amendment sanctuary” counties.
7. Oil and gas control
A sweeping new oil and gas bill that provides cities and towns more power to regulate drilling in their communities was signed into law this year despite Republican objections to the speed with which it went through the legislature. Senate Bill 19-181 also changes the mission of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission from fostering energy development to regulating it and requires increased monitoring of flow lines and public disclosure of information about the flow lines.
Supporters of the new law called it a paradigm shift, centering decisions on public health and safety. Opponents said it threatens jobs and the state economy.
8. Health reform takes center stage
Lawmakers passed major changes on the health care front this year, making Colorado the first state in the nation to cap the price of insulin and approving a reinsurance program to help insurers cover their sickest, most expensive patients. The reinsurance program was approved by the federal government in July and lowered premiums on the state’s marketplace for the first time.
The General Assembly also approved a study of a potential public health care option. Colorado is among a few states exploring such an program, which would allow residents in high-cost areas to buy insurance from the state. The issue has been controversial, with hospitals and insurance companies worried about the cost and impact to the health insurance market.
Democrats tried to pass legislation on vaccines to improve Colorado’s worst-in-the-nation vaccination rate, but it died amid pushback from Polis.
9. Growth dominates local politics
Communities across the Denver metro area continued to try to manage a population boom, with all that entails — traffic challenges vs. transit expansion, housing affordability vs. too much development too fast. RTD opened new legs of its rail system in the northwest and southeast parts of the Denver metro area in the spring but by fall the agency was struggling with a shortage of drivers to keep all its rail and bus routes running.
Provided by Mark Samuelson
KB Home’s Villa Collection of paired homes at The Meadows in Castle Rock.
In Castle Rock, the town is redeveloping land at the site of its former landfill to create more jobs for its commuter residents. In Lakewood, voters passed a measure to limit growth by placing a cap on residential construction, and city leaders were still trying to figure out how to implement it as the year ended. People living in the Elbert County town of Elizabeth resisted their leadership’s attempts to approve new development and change its rural feel.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that as of July 1, 2018, the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area was the nation’s 19th largest, at 2.9 million, up 1.4% from the prior year. The city and county of Denver alone added 11,053 more residents in the year that ended July 1, 2018, according to the census, moving the population to 716,492.
10. When weather meets politics
The weirdest political story of the year came in March, when the state Senate met — and even held a public hearing — amid a rare bomb cyclone. Democrats were trying to accomplish their agenda with a narrow majority in the chamber, despite Republicans’ best efforts to slow them down. The bomb cyclone was Colorado’s strongest storm on record, according to forecasters — a combination of wind and snow that caused closures and crashes across the state. The family leave bill that was the subject of the public hearing was ultimately scrapped.
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